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Shack: Focus on winning, not blame

James "Shack'' Harris, Jaguars vice president, player personnel, sat down for a Q&A this week with and Times-Union beat writer Michael C. Wright. Excerpts are below. Read the entire interview on Wright's blog on ultimatejaguars.com.Let's not beat around the bush. With the current situation, do you feel like you should keep your job and why?
The only thing I can say is that when you look at when Jack [Del Rio] and I got here in 2003, we built this roster into a playoff-caliber roster. From 2003 to now, we are in the top eight or nine teams in the league in terms of wins. Last year, we were a team that went 11-5 and won a playoff game and after training camp this year, we were considered one of the top five or six teams in terms of having the best chance of winning the Super Bowl. So that's what I would stand behind. That's what Jack and I have been able to accomplish.
In past drafts and free agency, you've called a lot of the moves "Jaguars decisions." Truthfully, how many are actual "Jaguars decisions" as opposed to Jack Del Rio decisions, Shack Harris decisions or Gene Smith decisions?
Well, I think I need to tell you a little bit about the process. Our process is a thorough process. Our scouts grade the entire NFL throughout the year. They grade every player, including all the free agents. When the season is over, our coaches grade the players and free agents that are available. We'll then have a discussion to talk through those players. After that, when that list is narrowed down, Gene, Jack and myself - we'll watch those players together. We believe in making decisions off tape and after that, we'll get together and discuss it, set our board and we'll make a decision accordingly. That's what we call a Jaguar decision.
In your experience in this league, how many teams have a hierarchy or decision-making process like what's here in Jacksonville? Aren't most personnel heads given absolute authority over all matters concerning personnel?
I think there are many different ways to win in this league and different teams do it different ways. I'm not sure of what the breakdown is, but there are different methods of making decisions.
But with the current situation, everyone is pointing the finger at you. So with that being the case, is there a part of you that wishes you had absolute authority over all personnel matters since, at the end of the day, you're the one being held accountable in all this?
Right now, we have a process that we think works. We think it's gotten us to the point to where we had been considered one of the top five or six teams in the NFL. My focus has always been on winning and not necessarily being concerned about whom gets the blame.
Is it safe to say that you, Gene Smith and Jack Del Rio all have an equal say in personnel matters whether it's draft or free agency?
The way it's set up during the draft, I have the final say. But what we try to do is by watching tape - and also, coaches have different systems they put in and we try to give the coaches players that they think can fit their system and help them win - so when we evaluate we're usually attracted to the players that we mostly agree on.
So are you saying you have final say, but typically don't like to make a move unless everyone agrees?
It's not that everyone has to agree. Sometimes we just go to another player. It's very seldom where we totally disagree. It's not a problem that occurs frequently.
How many times has it happened?
I don't want to get into the numbers. But there have been times we've gone to another player that we feel better about as a group.
Can you talk about any players in particular where everyone didn't agree?
That's kind of an in-house issue.
Everyone by now knows what happened with Byron Leftwich being released. Wasn't that a time when you and Del Rio disagreed?
Jack felt strongly about the change at the time. I didn't disagree. I supported his decision. I just thought the timing of it - right before the first game - was my concern. I like David [Garrard] as a quarterback. So I supported Jack's decision. My only discussion with him was the timing of it.
Not to pit you and Del Rio against one another, but how is it that last year's success was a product of good coaching, while the current situation is perceived as a product of bad personnel?
Certainly, that's something that's being said outside the building. Inside the building, we've continued to work together to build this team. Coming into this season, we felt good about where we were.
How would you judge the moves this team has made from '03 to now?
I would first of all say that from '03, in the AFC, there have been two teams with outstanding quarterbacks that have been a cut above the rest - Indianapolis and New England. The rest of the teams, it's changed [as far as which teams are considered contenders from year to year]. I think from 2003 to now, we've been one of the teams that have been considered one of the top in that group.
Even though this team went to the playoffs, it seems like we were in this same room last year talking about some of the same things. Why is it that whenever things aren't going well, you're the first guy people seem to criticize?
That's something I really can't speak on. I try to focus on each year, evaluating this team, making decisions along with Gene [Smith] and Jack, and also making decisions that are cap friendly with [senior vice president] Paul Vance. Those are the kinds of things you focus on. There's a lot outside the building I have no control over. I'm human, but there's nothing I can do about that.
Speaking of human, does any of this criticism hurt?
I'm fortunate enough to have been a quarterback in this league and have a lot of experiences to kind of fall back on. I'm human, but I still have a job to do.
Have you talked to Wayne Weaver about your future?
No. I think this season has been disappointing. I think we all felt ... I'll just answer that with a "no."
When will you speak with Weaver?
We usually talk after the season is over.
A lot has been made of this team's history of making picks in the first round. Has this team missed on its first-rounders?
In 2003, when we took a quarterback [Byron Leftwich], everyone thought he was a good selection. There was a team trying to trade up to get him, but we were fortunate to get him that day. Taking Reggie Williams [with the ninth pick in 2004], we thought that was kind of an eight-player deep draft. We tried to make some trades and we couldn't. The players beyond that [drafted behind Williams] all had some concerns, including Reggie. But we thought for us - after doing our research - that Reggie was a good fit. There were a couple of tackles there, but we had [Marcus] Stroud and [John] Henderson. So we would've been stacking our roster instead of extending the roster. In spite of that, Reggie has contributed to us winning. He's the Jaguars' all-time leader in touchdown receptions in a season [10]. He's also been a big part of our running game. So he has contributed.
Some of the other players we've taken, because of our record, we've ended up drafting in the 20s, which means that we were progressing. When you're drafting in the 20s, there are no guaranteed Pro Bowl players on the board at the time. The guys you project to be Pro Bowlers, they're taken in the top 10. So you want to get a good NFL starter in the 20s and we feel that the guys we've drafted - Matt Jones with the way he's begun to play, Marcedes Lewis, who we feel is one of the best blocking tight ends in the league and will improve as a receiver, Reggie Nelson as an athletic safety - those players will start on most teams in this league. If we draft a player this year in the 20s, he would not beat those players out.
But for all the criticism of the picks in the first round, this team has done well in the second, right?
You can take anyone's draft and pick different parts of it [to criticize]. But you have to look at the overall process. When you look at the draft, the guys we've taken in the second round, some of those guys may be first-round value. Rashean Mathis has made a Pro Bowl. Greg Jones, we think he's the best fullback in the game. Daryl Smith has started since we've been here. Khalif Barnes, despite what people think, has started on a team that was second in the league in rushing [last year]. Maurice Drew has been a great player for us and will continue to be a great player in this league. So if you grade our draft collectively -first and second round - and compare it with other teams, I don't think you can say we've had bad drafts.
By now, you've probably identified some areas of need on this team. Can you share what those are?
We're trying to get through this season. Then we'll evaluate the players after the season. Once we do that evaluation, we'll make an accurate assessment based on comparisons with other players around the league. We do feel that we have a good nucleus here. Some of the same guys we won 11 games with last year are still here. We've had some struggles, but we think we've got players on this team that will be good players for a long time.
You said you're not certain about how this team got here. Is that the feeling throughout the building because it seems like a lot of people within the organization are stunned with what's happened?
Coming into the season, expectations were high. Then the very first game, you lose three interior linemen off a running team, a team that was second in the NFL in rushing, fifth in the NFL in scoring. You lose them all at once. In spite of that, we still had a chance to win that game and didn't. Early on, the first games we played, we had chances to win but missed a play here or there and lost. From that point, I can't really explain it. I'm disappointed and I don't have all the answers to why we are where we are.
Do you subscribe to the notion that a team has to have what people define as stars to win championships?
Obviously, there's nothing like that great player. We'd love to have them. But there are only a couple of ways of acquiring them. Normally, you've got to pay them a lot of money [in free agency], you've got to draft them real high, or you've got to get lucky and take a guy who plays better than he's drafted. But if you knew he was gonna be that great of a player, wouldn't he have gone in the first 10 picks? What you do is you get as many good players as you can.